The story of the Germans who settled in Canada from its beginnings
is
skillfully drawn in this book. Heinz Lehmann, who was a German born
and
educated scholar, collected the material for the book between 1928
and
1930 and published it in two books plus three articles in 1931 and
1939.
Bassler put Lehmann's work all together in English, sorting out
duplications of material. Lehmann lived long enough to review and
approve
this translation, which appeared just before his death.

It is fascinating to follow the earliest history of Germans who
came into
Canada. About one third (11,853) of the Hessian soldiers who served
on
England's side in the American Revolutionary War did not return
to
Germany. Almost 5000 of them died but about 7,000 survived, and
they were
welcome settlers in both the fledgling United States and Canada.
(Lehmann
doesn't mention this, but it appears that most of these soldiers
came from
the same areas as many of those who went to Russia, suggesting an
intriguing blood link.) Little by little, Germans directly from
Germany,
others came from other European countries, and German-speakers who
had
first come to the United States settled the farmland of Canada.
Lehman
carefully traces where they came from, where they took up land,
and what
their circumstances were in the settlement process. He takes care
to note
the religious faith of each group--primarily Lutheran, Catholic,
and
Mennonite--and who it was who came to serve them in their churches.
He
does not appear to have prejudices against any group. He notes that
Mennonites and the culturally related Hutterites were often the
most
capable farmers and were repeatedly the first to move into the most
hostile areas to make their homes. He mentions schools and the
controversies that surrounded them as the German settlers struggled
to
maintain their faith and culture (including language) and the Canadian
government asserted its policy of assimilation. Lehmann's general
attitude
is that being culturally German is a good thing, but he is not
anti-Canadian; he recognizes the tremendous benefit that Canada
provided
in opening its doors to the ethnic Germans.

The fact that the material for this book was collected and written
at the
time when the fascists were consolidating their power and Germany
was
especially interested in Germans who lived elsewhere in the world
may be
disturbing to some readers. But there is nothing propagandistic
about it;
this reviewer could see no evidence that it is anything but a
straightforward scholarly effort to trace the times and places of
German-speaking peoples' settlement in Canada. Researching and writing
a
book of this kind was especially important, the introductions say,
because
some histories of the settlement of Canada do not mention Germans
at all.

A nuisance item that recurs in the book is the use of "now"
and "today,"
and the reader is never quite sure if the text refers to the time
of
Lehmann's writing or of Bassler's translating, but this is not a
reason to
reject the book. Germans from Russia who have family who migrated
to or
through Canada at any time will be interested in reading this book.
This
reviewer found several pages that illuminated a period during which
her
father wandered Canada in search of work. Others may find a fit
with their
own family stories. It is a good companion to the book Russian-German
Settlements in the United States by Richard Sallet, Translated by
LaVern
J. Rippley and Armand Bauer (North Dakota Institute for Regional
Studies,
Fargo, ND. 1974.) Libraries would do well to shelve them side by
side
because both perform the same service, one taking over at the border
where
the other leaves off.

Permission
to use any images from the GRHC website may be requested
by contacting Michael
M. Miller